A Different Kind of Triage
by Zessa
Summary: The leftovers of the 4077th Colonial MASH Unit deal with life on New Caprica, survival, and attempt to retain their humanity in the midst of impossible circumstances. A BSG:2003/MASH crossover.
1. Chapter 1

**A Different Kind of Triage  
**

**Authors Note: **Spoilers for Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica RDM! Spoilers for all of MASH! Thanks to Mari for the title, I was really stuck on this one.

**Summary:** The first in a series of ficlets about the MASH Doctors in the Battlestar Galactica 2003 Universe. Hawkeye deals up close with the 'skin jobs' on New Caprica, and he'd thought the Army Brass had been bad.

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**Cylon Occupied New Caprica**

"Possible hemothorax, this one goes first. Wait strike that, he goes second, this head trauma goes first. For the gods sake, someone get Charles' ass out of bed? This is gonna be a long night." Hawkeye Pierce, former Colonial MASH doctor and now one of the few doctors left to humanity stood up and shook the cobwebs out of his head. He'd been having such a great dream, or well, as close to a great dream as one could have on this spawn of Hades planet.

"Dr. Pierce, may I have a word with you?" A Three interrupted his morbid and tired thoughts. He could never keep the Cylons straight, was this the nice Three, the serious Three, or the insane Three? A random thought stuck him in the midst of all the chaos, "They need little name tags, 'Hi, My name is 'Angry Three' how may I help you." Hawk shook his flight of fancy away and concentrated on the hurt woman in front of him.

"What, I'm a little busy," he yelled over the hubbub as Margaret and her crew of 'pick up' nurses did the best they could with the limited drugs and bandages. He thought he saw Erin Hunnicutt pitching in here and there. In other circumstances a fifteen year old doing the work of a wartime nurse would have disgusted Hawkeye and offended every sense of right and wrong. All he felt right now, though, was relief that someone competent was helping Margret and Kellye with the influx.

Hawkeye examined his next patient, a young woman who was 7 or 8 months along in her pregnancy. "Pulse dropping, Margaret, get her to B.J. now or her baby isn't gonna make it. You should prep for an Imperial Section just in case," He looked down at the now unconscious pregnant woman.

The former Major sighed as she came over to access the patient, "Already done Hawk," she pursed her lips, "Resistance or Cylon? Not that it matters I just want to know who…"

"If you want your shipment of antibiotics, I suggest you get over here, NOW! Dr. Pierce," The Brother Cavil interrupted the nurse and doctor. Hawkeye noticed that the Three and the Cavil stood over a body somewhat worried, or about as worried as the human models ever looked in front of their 'subjects'.

"Yes imperious leader," he mumbled under his breath, "keep your bolts screwed tight," his quip earned a snort and a small smile from Margaret.

"To what do I owe the honor?" Hawkeye said as he loped over to the two skin-jobs, not that he'd be caught dead calling them that out loud. He looked down at both the Cavil and the Three, "We're a bit busy here, if you don't mind."

"I want you to put her in the front of your triage line," he ordered.

Hawk knelt down next to the Cylon, a model Six, belly and chest wound, she probably needed a bowel resection and based on the breathing he'd bet the proverbial farm there was a hemothorax. Plus he'd be spending a few hours digging out shrapnel, which would be touch and go. All in all…

He sighed, here came the fight, "Look, I might, and I stress might, be able to save her, but it would take hours and drugs I just don't have."

Cavil dug his feet in, "I don't care, she needs to be…"

"No, I'll not put her in front, she'll take up resources, there's a very good chance she'll die anyway, and she'll bump back more important patients who don't download into a nice pretty spaceship when they die." God he hated this.

The Three put her hand on the shoulder of the Cavil, Hawkeye never could figure out who was in charge of whom with the Cylons, looks like the Three wore the pants today.

"I understand Doctor, can you at least…" The Brother Cavil stormed off interrupting the seemingly well meaning Three.

"It's against my Asclepian oath," Hawkeye said quietly, "You know, do no harm to others?"

"Is it not also part of your oath to relieve suffering? She is suffering."

Hawkeye glared at the Three, before taking a deep breath, and responding, "Go talk to Klinger. Ask him for the Hades Weed concentrate."

"Hades Weed?"

"It's a local plant. We refine it and make a strong knock out drug." Hawkeye grimaced, obviously not liking whatever he was gonna say next. "A swig knocks most people out for a few hours, we don't know for sure but more…"

The three interrupted him, "I think I understand, thank you Dr..."

Out of the corner of his eye Hawkeye noticed Radar scurrying about collecting and tagging possessions of the dead and wounded. "Radar, just the guy I needed!" Pierce said in his usual gregarious manner. Which, he noticed, surprised the Three out of whatever she was about to say.

"Everything ok Hawk?" the former clerk held his clipboard tightly as he approached the surgeon and the Six. Radar's nervousness around the blond bombshell Cylon was palatable. For some strange reason this amused Hawkeye a little bit. You had to take your humor where you could find it. That was something everyone understood now. It made him a little sad actually.

"Go find Cottle and see what he can take, I wanna move some of the less serious cases to that side of tent city. Maybe even a serious one or two once we get them stable."

Radar was nodding furiously throught the entire exchange. "Give this to Klinger," He shoved his clipboard in Hawkeye's hands and ran toward the main 'road' which was the fasted way to the other side of Tent City.

Hawkeye's razor sharp glare shifted back to the Cylon. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have other patients to attend to, and I don't kill if I can avoid it. Asclepian oath and all," he then stormed off, leaving a somewhat confused and relieved Three in his wake.

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**End Notes: **

I used an English translation of the German term for a Cesarean Section. Since there was no Caesar in colonial history and thus no historical figure for the procedure to be attached to, I couldn't call it a Cesarean Section. (How Caesar got attached to the procedure is a long story in and of itself)

Also, You'll find out how the MASH crew got to New Caprica and how things work in a little bit. Be patient.

Yes, Radar is still Radar even though the colonial Radar is called Dradis. There's gonna be a reason for that. After 7 or so seasons of calling him Radar on the show, Dradis just didn't feel right. Everyone is keeping their names and ranks. I'm working up explanations and work arounds when earth army ranks don't quite fit the BSG universe.


	2. Chapter 2

**A Different Kind of Triage**

**Spoilers: **Spoilers for Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica RDM. Spoilers for all of MASH.

**Summary:** A belt of Hawkeye's homemade hooch is just what the doctor ordered after BJ Hunnicutt completes a marathon surgery session. The second in a series of ficlets about the MASH Doctors in the BSG 2003 universe.

**Authors Note: **Father Mulcahy is staying **Father** Mulcahy, he's from a sect of priests and priestesses that take the title 'Father' and 'Mother'. I tried to work that fact into this chapter but wasn't quite able to. Just so I don't get confused reviews. :)

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After a the most recent marathon surgery session, all BJ Hunnicutt wanted was a belt. He hated doing Imperial Sections, especially when it had been a healthy pregnancy. Well, a healthy pregnancy until the placenta had been invaded by a Centurion's Bullets, therefore causing said placenta to detach. He didn't know if either mother or child would survive the night.

A belt, yes that's what he wanted. A large glass of the strongest hootch on New Caprica. The best place to get it? The Swamp.

At first the Swamp had just been where Charles and Hawkeye lived together while they worked on erecting more tents around the compound. It hadn't even been named yet. The Cylons changed all those plans of course. As soon as Hawkeye had realized their situation was about to go from doctors to a refugee population to something similar to their time in the Korean Peninsula on Canceron, he'd named this tent after the old one.

BJ didn't live here anymore, not like the old days, but he was a frequent visitor and helped Hawkeye tend the new still. His family was here. He counted himself lucky they were alive. Sometimes he didn't know if it was a good thing that they were on New Caprica. Occasionally he wished they'd stayed on the ships. If nothing else he'd be able to live down here without worrying about some fraking Centurion shooting them because Erin said something 'wrong' in school. He knew President, no wait, former president Roslin wouldn't report anything of the sort, but who knew about the other kids parents. It wasn't so much the insane amounts surgery that was wearing everyone down, they knew how to handle that. It was the constant and necessary paranoia that was slowly taking it's toll.

Beej strolled into the tent and gave the two men a quick, "Yo," before adding his offering of a geode to the shrine to Asclepius on the table in the back of the tent. Erin had found the rock earlier that day and it seemed an appropriate offering. Then, he noticed something on the table that made him do a double take. Was that...no... right there next to Margaret's offering of a local fruit was a shot of swamp rotgut in Hawkeye's favorite, and only, glass.

Why'd the avowed agnostic of the group leave an offering? He'd always left to him and Charles the 'religious stuff'. Oh, he'd gotten superstitious about the Father's fixes in surgery during the war but Hawkeye had always been the least outwardly religious. Something had to be wrong.

"What did that Three want?" Charles interrupted BJ's thoughts.

"There was a Three? No one told me about a Three hanging around." Beej interjected as he sat down on a chair and picked up a glass of rotgut.

Hawkeye rolled his eyes at his former and current bunkmates, "There was a cheesed off Cavil too."

"They are, on the whole, ornery buggers." Charles commented.

BJ snorted then smirked before he drank some of the moonshine, that had to be the understatement of the year.

"They wanted me to put a Six in the front of the triage line," Hawkeye said blandly.

Charles snorted, "Wonderful, yes, let us simply fix the triage line like one of your triad games."

"HEY! We don't fix the triad games." Hawkeye interjected before burying himself in his blankets.

Charles sniffed, "Yes, I'll believe that when I see it." He paused as he took a sip of his tea, "How bad was she?"

Hawk snorted, "If she'd been human I'd've called Father Mulcahy over for...you know."

After all these years, BJ was quite adept at speaking Hawkeye. He was still working on his Charles, he'd kinda got the hang of Margaret and he'd never quite figured out Klinger, but Hawkeye, he was fluent in. Hawk was blaming himself for something, as usual. "That's not the problem is it?"

Muttering made its way though the tent from the lump in Hawkeye's cot. BJ could just make out, "tell on you to Peg", "hate you" and "Frak off" multiple times in different variations and combinations.

"It can't be that we left her to die, they do get another body. We've all left Cylons out of surgery on the triage line, and you know we left people out of the lines during the war it's the nature of the beast. Is that what..." Hawkeye flung a shoe across the tent and hit Charles in the shoulder, "Now, I say Pierce."

BJ jumped in before it could turn into yet another squabble, "What's eattin' you Hawk, you left an offering to Asclepius, you NEVER do that. Last time you did that..." Beej made eye contact with Charles, both remembering the harrowing last months of their deployment when Hawk had completely lost it. BJ shivered and tried to push the images of Hawkeye so out of his mind that he tried to operate on patients without anesthetics from his own head.

Hawkeye flipped the blanket off his head and held himself up by his elbows, "I helped a Three do it today, ok! You happy?"

"You helped a Three do what? Procreate?" BJ tried in vain to interject some levity in the situation.

"Euthanasia! I participated in euthanasia and helped that Three kill the Six, so, frak off and let me wallow in my misery." He childishly flopped back on his cot.

BJ rolled his eyes and made eye contact with Charles, he'd half expected this to happen eventually, it made sense. Of course it had to happen to Hawkeye, the one who'll brood over whether it was right or wrong.

Perhaps Charles read that eye contact as his turn to get Pierce out of one of his moods, or maybe he just felt strongly. He pursed his lips and said in that way of his, "You didn't kill her Pierce, you merely eased her suffering. What's euthanasia to us is simple…" he paused, looking for a way to finish the analogy.

"I get it Charles, thanks," Hawkeye said sarcastically, "I just... I don't like taking life, even an artificial one!"

"Nor do I, but you have to realize where we are, this isn't the Korean war. It's not some relatively pointless conflict the President thought we needed to keep the newly formed government together. This time, our entire way of life, our species will be gone." Charles huffed, "We can't afford to be picky, we have to survive!"

Hawkeye sneered, "You sound like Admiral Cain, regular military gone horribly wrong."

"No, Pierce, I just want to survive to see my grandchildren."

Silence reigned in the tent, three surgeons each trying to digest what had been said. After a few minutes, BJ was the one brave enough to interrupt the silence.

"I think I need another drink."


	3. Chapter 3

"Major, err...Charles, I mean, Winchester, oh whatever, get up," Klinger knelt down and whispered to the sleeping form. Had Charles been awake, he would have detected Klinger's urgent worry.

"Whatever it is you swarthy numb-skull, it can wait."

"It really can't sir. Hawkeye and Major Houlihan have gone missing."

That brought the doctor right out of his stupor. He lifted himself up on his elbows and glared at the former Sergent. "Pierce and Margaret had Post-Op duty tonight. Are you absolutely sure they are missing?"

Klinger shook his head, "I wish, BJ and Kelley came in already to relieve them and that's the last any one's seen..." the swarthy man gulped. "I even had Igor check all the, you know," he made a few odd gestures with his hand, "spots. We're calling a staff meeting just in case..." he trailed off, obviously NOT wanting to even think about what the rest of his sentence would be.

"The Cylons got them," Charles completed the unthinkable thought. "Now, if you would," He rose to a sitting position. He held a pair of pants in one hand and made a dismissive motion with the other, "skedaddle."

"Yeah, fine I get it, just hurry up." Klinger bolted out of the tent, the door slamming behind him.

In normal times, Charles would have made a point to get the last word. It had to be one of his favorite 'sports' with Klinger. At first it had begun with genuine malice between the the two men. Later while still heated, the name calling had evolved into a game, almost a strange sort of ritual. It was one of the odder friendships to come out of the war, not as odd as Margret and Pierce's on again off again fling but still strange.

Once he was dressed he poured himself a bit of Hawkeye's swill and downed the homemade liquor in one gulp. "Let them be necking on a hill somewhere." he muttered to himself before leaving the tent.


End file.
